Cloth piece supply apparatus and method

Abstract

A cloth pick-up apparatus is used which comprises pressing mechanism for a pressing one end of the top cloth piece from the upper side, a catch roller having on a part of its circumferential surface catch needles and movable toward and away from the other end of the top cloth piece, the catch roller being adapted to be driven for rotation to feed the top cloth piece in a direction remote from the pressing mechanism, a feed roller rotatable in timed relation with the catch roller, and a pressure roller movable toward and away from a cloth-piece-feed surface of the feed roller and rotatable in cooperation with the feed roller. The catch roller is rotated touching one end of front face of the cloth pieces with the other end of the cloth piece pressed by the pressing roller so that the upper most cloth piece is caught by the catch needles and, at the same time, is raised. Then the cloth pieces are fed one by one to the next station as the individual cloth piece is clamped between the feed surfaces of the feed roller in driven rotation and the pressure roller.

What is claimed is: 
     
       1. A cloth piece supply machine for conveying successive cloth pieces in a stack, picking up the cloth pieces one by one from the top of the stack and supplying the cloth pieces, with their front faces facing in the same direction, to a subsequent station, said machine comprising: (A) a cloth piece conveying apparatus situated under a cloth piece pick-up position, in which the cloth pieces accommodated in the stack in a cloth piece receiving box are to be picked up one by one from the top of the stack and are to be supplied to the subsequent station, and having a conveying path for conveying a plurality of said receiving boxes succeeding to said pick-up position;   (B) a cloth piece pick-up apparatus situated in said cloth piece pick-up position, said cloth piece pick-up apparatus including (i) pressing means for pressing one end of the top cloth piece from above, and (ii) a catch roller having catch needles on a part of circumferential surface thereof and movable toward and away from another end of the top cloth piece, said catch roller being adapted to be driven for rotation to feed the top cloth piece to move the top cloth piece in a direction away from said pressing means; and   (C) a cloth piece feed apparatus situated adjacent to a cloth piece discharge port of said cloth piece pick-up apparatus for feeding the cloth pieces, with front faces facing in the same direction, to the subsequent station.   
     
     
       2. A cloth piece supply machine according to claim 1, wherein said conveying path of said receiving box is a rectangular frame-shape circulating path, there being situated in said conveying path automatic conveying means for conveying said receiving boxes and also an elevating plate for controlling the vertical movement of said receiving box. 
     
     
       3. A cloth piece supply machine according to claim 2, further including positioning means situated adjacent to and downstream of said elevating plate for positioning said receiving box. 
     
     
       4. A cloth piece supply machine according to claim 2, wherein said receiving box has in its bottom an opening for the passage of said elevating plate, there being supported on said bottom a cloth piece support plate. 
     
     
       5. A cloth piece supply machine according to claim 2, wherein said receiving box is adjustable with respect to a distance between pairs of opposed sidewalls. 
     
     
       6. A cloth piece supply machine according to claim 1, further including a feed roller rotatable in timed relation with said catch roller, and a pressure roller movable toward and away from a cloth-piece-feed surface of said feed roller and rotatable in cooperation with said feed roller. 
     
     
       7. A cloth piece supply machine according to claim 1, wherein said pressing means is a pressing roller. 
     
     
       8. A cloth piece supply machine according to claim 1, wherein said pressing means includes a pressure block having on its bottom catch needles and resiliently movable in a direction of movement of the pulled cloth piece, and a cloth piece removal block for removing the cloth piece off said catch needles. 
     
     
       9. A cloth piece supply machine according to claim 1, further comprising a guide plate having one end which is contiguous to an upper surface of said pressure roller and extends horizontally in a direction of discharging the cloth piece and being cooperative with said pressure roller. 
     
     
       10. A cloth piece supply machine according to claim 1, wherein said cloth piece feed apparatus includes a pair of upper and lower first feed rollers situated at said cloth piece discharge port and rotable in forward and reverse directions, a pair of upper and lower second feed-rollers rotatable so as to feed the cloth pieces in one direction, a pair of upper and lower reverse feed rollers situated centrally between said pair of first feed rollers and said pair of second feed rollers and rotatable in forward and reverse directions, a first feed path switching member situated in a cloth piece feed path of said reverse feed rollers for guiding the cloth pieces selectively in forward and reverse feed directions, and a second feed path switching member situated downstream of said first feed rollers for guiding the cloth pieces selectively to a normal position in the cloth piece path and a shunting position. 
     
     
       11. A method for picking up cloth pieces in a stack one by one from the top of the stack, using said cloth piece pick-up apparatus as defined by claim 1, by repeating the following steps for feeding the cloth pieces successively to a subsequent manufacturing station: (a) bringing said catch roller, which is in rotation as being driven, close to a surface of a leading end portion of the top cloth which is opposite to a trailing end portion pressed on the surface by said pressing means;   (b) catching the top cloth piece with the catch needles of said catch roller and, at the same time, raising the top cloth piece to bring the surface of the leading end portion of the cloth piece into contact with the feed surface of said feed roller, said feed roller being a driven roller; and   (c) pressing the leading end portion of the cloth piece against said feed roller by said pressure roller which is moved at the same time when the leading end portion of the cloth piece is brought into contact with the feed surface of said feed roller.   
     
     
       12. A cloth piece pick-up method according to claim 11, wherein the cloth pieces in stack are raised stepwise at a pitch corresponding to the cloth thickness in a cloth piece pick-up position in time relation with the action of picking up.